To date, there have been 100+ ideas submitted for the BetterBuy Project ("the Project") and they keep coming in! Community participants are obviously very interested in the federal acquisition process and how to improve it. A little while ago, GSA's FEDSIM published Data.gov and ClearPath, which are the two Project pilot procurements which will test a few of the ideas/concepts that have been submitted.

As Mary Davie indicated in her March 25, 2010 blog entry titled "Transparency, Collaboration and Participation in the Federal Acquisition Process is Here," the American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council's Acquisition Management Shared Interest Group (SIG) is taking the next step to review the remainder of the ideas that have been submitted, categorize them and select a an additional number to be discussed further and possibly placed into action.

The Acquisition Management SIG has initiated the review process and is working towards the end goal of categorizing the remaining suggestions/ideas. We are discussing each suggestion in light of the ultimate objective of the Project, which is "how can we use collaboration and social media to make the federal acquisition process more efficient and effective?" Once complete, our plan is to involve the GovLoop Acquisition 2.0 community to further flesh out the suggestions through additional crowdsourcing, etc.

Please stay tuned for further progress reports and remain engaged in the conversation!

Hello all-

Sincere thanks to GSA for the opportunity to make our first post in this space.

Upon seeing the BetterBuy initiative mature and bloom into two very real pilot opportunities, we were faced with a challenge:

How can we craft effective RFI/RFQ/RFP Responses that balance transparency with our obligations to privacy?

In order to avoid shareholder lawsuits, public companies are required to guard corporate assets which can include a company's trade secret assets and other proprietary information such as, clients (i.e., past performance), project methodologies that create competitive advantage, detailed pricing data and more. Each of these items is probably key to include in a winning RFQ/RFP response and/or a persuasive RFI response.

In an age where technology can facilitate a full RFI/RFQ/RFP response in an online Wiki, how can we maintain an environment that allows public companies to respond to BetterBuy's Wiki-style Requests without this legal risk? We wanted to bid, but we wondered whether a public company might face that built-in obstacle that private organizations might not. Did other organizations have similar challenges?

Thanks again for the opportunity, and we look forward to sharing additional observations and lessons learned soon.

Over time, several trends have become apparent in regards to postings: 1) sometimes, there is not enough information or context to aid readers in getting a true understanding the suggestion, 2) lack of examples sometimes make it difficult to focus readers on how the suggestion might be implemented with Web 2.0 or social media technologies, and 3) many times original posters or other community members do not provide follow-on postings to add more context or answer questions.

When you post a suggestion or a follow-on comment, please try and provide some detail/context so that other readers, who may not be as knowledgeable as you in the subject matter, can grasp your ideas. Adding examples of how Web 2.0 and social media technology might be able to address your suggestion would be helpful as well.

We've received many postings to this site and value every one of them. There is a need, however, for follow-on community discussion on many of the postings. This type of exchange amongst community members will increase the overall knowledge of the community plus provide valuable context for the GSA, NAPA and IAC/ACT folks who will be determining which suggestions to address.

Thanks and keep your suggestions coming.

To date, the BetterBuy Project (BBP) has generated some superb input about ways to improve the federal acquisition process using Web 2.0 and social media technologies, as well as some other ideas on how to "fix" the process. I've summarized the main themes of BBP and categorized the ideas that have been generated thus far in keeping with the project themes: Openness, Collaboration and Transparency.

1) OPENNESS: Raise awareness of upcoming needs government is trying to fulfill, in order to assemble a pool of qualified providers who can compete on specific requirements.

Information Sharing. A number of respondents suggested methods for sharing information across organizations and agencies within the government. The formation of searchable information repositories containing results of market research, common contractual language, RFQ's and best practices appeared to be the common denominator amongst various participants. Often, it is difficult for acquisition professionals to search for and find information that would be useful in developing/executing their specific acquisition when looking across a single federal enterprise or government-wide.

2) COLLABORATION: Find ways for the government to engage in more 'open' conversations with the private sector on topics such as best practices, emerging technologies and innovations, and market conditions.

Collaborative requirements generation. Participants suggested that social media technology, such as wikis, be used to enhance the collaboration of process stakeholders, such as Integrated Project Teams, to develop the content of evaluation criteria, requirements documents, performance work statements, etc. There was recognition that collaboration between government-only participants behind federal firewalls would require different business rules and constraints than those collaboration efforts which also engaged industry and other non-federal players.

3) TRANSPARENCY: Give the public and interested parties timely data on upcoming and ongoing buying activities, with the goal of promoting fair and high-quality competitions.

Communications. A number of ideas were presented that would enhance the federal government's transparency and external communications with the vendor community during the solicitation process. Use of social media technology, including Twitter, live video streams, webinars, RSS feeds, and on-line chats could be used to supplement (perhaps in time replace) existing communications mechanisms to increase participation and reduce costs in the solicitation process. Several specific ideas included using Twitter to inform vendors of (proposal processing) status and using webinars for pre-proposal conferences or industry days.

Additionally, a number of suggestions indicated some level of frustration with the overall federal acquisition process, but did not directly address how Web 2.0 or social media technologies could be used to improve the process. This being said, these comments are valuable and add to the growing body of knowledge concerning the challenges being faced by today's acquisition professionals. These comments should be discussed and/or addressed by appropriate levels of leadership within the federal government.

I welcome other opinions on the above categorizations, especially if you have a different viewpoint. It's important as we move forward with this project that we understand the focus areas and the value statement of these areas contribute to improving the acquisition process for not only the practitioners, but the ultimate customer - the taxpayer.

Thanks for checking out the BetterBuy Project. The federal government spends approximately $530 billion annually on the acquisition of a wide range of goods and services to meet mission needs, and the acquisition process represents one of the most important and complex areas of collaboration between government and the private sector. As demand increases, the complexity of what program managers need and what acquisition officials are buying has also increased. Government acquisition officials are being asked to do more with fewer resources. To provide the government with the goods and services it needs, the private sector is faced with an equally complex and challenging environment. Think of the hundreds of thousands of buys the government makes each year and the demand on the private sector to respond to those requests.

The BetterBuy Project team believes that we can increase transparency and openness in the process, potentially reducing costs to both the government and private sector, ultimately allowing government to deliver more value to taxpayers through the use of collaborative technologies. This vision, coupled with encouragement from the Obama Administration for federal agencies to use emerging social media platforms to share information and generate discussion on key issues, resulted in this collaborative effort between the General Services Administration, the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council and the National Academy of Public Administration.

Our success depends on your ideas and support as we test those ideas. We are excited by the thought that we'll encounter some new and unfamiliar territory. We'll keep you posted on what we're doing and how it's going throughout the process. You'll also hear from our contributing bloggers who will provide their thoughts, insights and experiences throughout our journey.

Thanks again for your help!